The seventh programme in this series, celebrating 80 years of British popular music, tells the story of Lennon and McCartney
Written by Tony Staveacre

The first part charts the progress of John Lennon and Paul McCartney from schoolboy skiffle groups to heavy rock in Hamburg and thence into the big time, with songs like 'Love Me Do', 'Please Please Me', 'She Loves You'.

The second part is an uninterrupted sequence of 19 songs from the later years, when John and Paul retreated from Beatlemania into the recording studio, there to create their best work.

The events of 'the studio years' are told through the songs in a series of visual images designed to identify the author, reflect the source of inspiration or explore the fantasy - from 'Yesterday' through 'Strawberry Fields', 'Across the Universe' to 'The Long and Winding Road'.
The songs are sung and the story is told by Paul Jones, Peter Blake, Stephen Leigh, Vicki Brown, Marti Webb, Sheila White

(The final part of The Songwriters will be shown in two weeks' time)